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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875717">Presentation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/impatientseamstress/pseuds/impatientseamstress'>impatientseamstress</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Megamind (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Biology, American Sign Language, Angst, Body Horror, Dark, Hal is a creep, Implied Roxanne/Megamind, Megamind Month Gift Exchange, Megamind is dangerous, Presentation, aquatic Megamind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:54:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26875717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/impatientseamstress/pseuds/impatientseamstress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>People assume the spikes and the leather and the giant robots are to make Megamind look scary...but presentation can be another form of camouflage</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Megamind/Roxanne Ritchi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>342</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Presentation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Shyanduncomfortable">Shyanduncomfortable</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/M1ssq633n0fw4nn4d13/gifts">M1ssq633n0fw4nn4d13</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My gift for Shyanduncomfortable for the Megamind Gift Exchange Month, my trope suggestion was "Presentation" and my brain went "yes but make it terrifying".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was dark by the time they were done with the interview at the Metro City Library. Roxanne shook hands with the archival librarian again and thanked her for her time. She stretched for a moment, then walked around the corner to the dim alley where the news van was parked. She  got in and settled her bag into her lap. In the driver's seat, Hal was poking at something.</p><p>Roxanne opened her bag,  "Shit, where's my phone?"</p><p>"You're phone's broke Roxaroo" Hal tossed it casually at her. Roxanne fumbled as the corner hit her in the chest. The screen lit up.</p><p>"Hey didn't it do that for me?"</p><p>"Did you go through my stuff?" she demanded.</p><p>Hal rolled his eyes and wiped a smear of sauce from his chin, "You left it in the van."</p><p>Roxanne glared, "My phone was in my bag Hal, what the hell were you doing going through it?"</p><p>"Hey I just wanted to see what that game you were playing was?"</p><p>"That wasn't a game, it was data! Research!"</p><p>"Research? Pfft" the ginger cameraman rolled his eyes.</p><p>"And more to the point you don't touch people's fucking personal possessions!" Roxanne gripped her phone tightly and pulled her shoulder away from Hal's grasping arm.</p><p>"Whats the big deal Roxie? C'mon let me buy you dinner to make up for it!"</p><p>"Fuck off Hal. I'm reporting this to HR tomorrow" Roxanne jumped out of the van and walked around to open the back doors and pull out her laptop bag. A slam from the other side of the van told her Hal had jumped out too. He rounded the van and pointed a finger in her face.</p><p>"Oh yeah? And how are you gonna get home? Call your <em>boy-friend</em> to pick you up" Hal sneered the word "Everyone knows you're not really dating Metro Man." he leaned into her face, "You should be grateful I'm even willing to consider you."</p><p>"One, not interested. And two, you think that gives you leave to act like a fucking creep?" Roxanne snapped, flinching back from his reeking breath, "Give me the van keys Hal. You can catch the bus home."</p><p>"Me? You cant even drive the van!" Hal leered triumphantly "You're not allowed!"</p><p>"Did you go through my wallet?!" Roxanne's provisional licence was a closely guarded secret and was the only reason she had up until now, put up with Hal's shitty behaviour. She couldn't technically drive the news van which made her persona non grata with the other camera crews who didn't want to do two jobs in one.</p><p>"So what if I did?" He demanded "What are you gonna do? Report from your desk all day? Face it Rox you need me!" He stepped forward, backing her against the open van door,</p><p>Roxanne fisted her keys between her fingers "Back off now" she growled.</p><p>"You cant hit me! You'll get fired!"</p><p>"I'd listen to the lady if I were you." Hal jumped and spun around. A black shadow leaned casually against the alley wall. Roxanne felt her heart rate pick up, matching the pulse thundering in her ears.</p><p>His arms were folded, fingers tapping slowly against his shoulder. The smile hovering around his mouth had none of the liveliness she's used to, it doesn't reach his eyes. His teeth never looked so sharp before.</p><p>Hal was shaking, making blank guppy faces at the super villain. "H-hey man I don't want any trouble, you-you can take her! I wont say anything!"</p><p>Roxanne glared in outrage. Green eyes cut to hers. A tilt of his blue head, asking silently if she wanted him to intervene. She shrugged and gave him a sharp nod.</p><p>"You think Miss Ritchi cant hit you?" Green eyes gleamed flat and dangerous, "But I definitely can." A blur of speed and a gloved fist slammed into Hal's jaw, sending him crashing into the equipment stacked in the van. Megamind reached in and wrenched, there was a wet crunch and Hal screamed, leaping upwards to smack his head on the roof of the van. He slumped unconscious in a pile of junk food wrappers and recording equipment.</p><p>"Did you break his arm?" Roxanne asked stunned.</p><p>"Dislocated his shoulder," came the quiet response, "Did you have anything else you needed from the van Miss Ritchi?"</p><p>Roxanne checked her purse and hoisted the laptop bag on her shoulder "Nope. I'm good."</p><p>Megamind flicked a pellet from his holster into the van and slammed the door shut, blue smoke billowed and leaked from the edge of the doors.</p><p>His eyes slid towards her. He was still with the savage promise of violence. No grand gestures, no leaping and mocking and banter for the cameras. No flash and style. Just darkness and viciousness and poison green eyes hiding unnamed threats watching her carefully.</p><p>She'd never realised how much of his style was to make him look less scary, not more.</p><p>"I don't suppose you brought the invisible car?" her voice was oddly steady, a strange counterpoint to how her nerves were still screaming.</p><p>He blinked and raised an eyebrow, "I'm not here to kidnap you,"</p><p>"I know." There was a weighted silence.</p><p>"Allow me escort you to the bus Miss Ritchi," </p><p>"...Sounds good."</p><p>They walked side by side down the dark streets, slowly Roxanne relaxed her fingers until she could slip her keys back into her purse.</p><p>"You didn't ask what the pellet was." a quiet murmur reached her ears. </p><p>"I didn't particularly care." Roxanne responded shortly. </p><p>"Hmm...perhaps I should have used something a little more lethal than a paint bomb then."</p><p>"Maybe."</p><p>They reached the bus stop. The timetable stated the next one was due in twelve minutes. Roxanne cast him a long look and walked around the green sheet metal that made up the back of the stop. The lights from the billboards advertising razors and perfume on the sides throwing the small space into deeper shadow.</p><p>"Seemed a bit bright for you" she shrugged at his questioning look.</p><p>"Would you like me to wait with you Miss Ritchi?" The way he said it, she knew he would have hung back on the edge of the darkness regardless, seeing her safely on board and who knows? Maybe all the way home.</p><p>"Maybe." She looked at him under her lashes, "I never realised how much of the big evil monologueing hid how scary you can actually be."</p><p>"Did I terrify you Miss Ritchi?" he seemed amused.</p><p>"I've seen you trip over your own cape playing fetch with the brain-bots," A corner of her mouth crooked upwards, "I don't think anything could scare me after seeing that"</p><p>He smiled, his teeth rows of sharp white needles.</p><p>"My my grandmother, what sharp teeth you have"</p><p>He froze and covered his hand with his mouth, "Ah."</p><p>"What happened?"</p><p>"Nothing happened. They grow like this,"His brow compressed into a flat line, "I'd appreciate you not mentioning it."</p><p>"You usually wear a cap, don't you." Its not a question.</p><p>At his querying look she shrugged, "You think reporters aren't vain?"</p><p>"There's a difference between failing human beauty standards and falling outside them entirely Miss Ritchi. Things are...easier when only the blue and the" he gestured vaguely at his the extended shape of his skull, "to deal with."</p><p>"Its always the presentation with you." she sighed</p><p>"Would you have me any other way?"</p><p>She leaned against the dark green wall of the shelter, "I haven't seen you move like that before," she said quietly.</p><p>"You don't think I show you all my moves do you?" He mirrored her stance.</p><p>She cast a sideways look at him, "I've seen more of you than most."</p><p>"Doesn't mean you've seen everything." he raised one wicked brow.</p><p>This is more familiar ground. Banter, skirting the edge into flirtation. Its the way their game is played.</p><p>But Roxanne couldn't get the sight of his liquid sharp movements out of her head. The stunning force, no weapons, no grand speech. The way he dealt with Hal like he was a poor imitation of a true threat. An interloper intruding on an apex predator's territory. The masked hunger when she met his eyes. Its almost enough to push the shaking fear of Hal's obnoxious threat to the back of her mind.</p><p>She hesitated, then leaned over and pressed her lips to his cheek. His skin felt...different. It rippled under her touch, like a wave of goosebumps.</p><p>His quiet gasp was unmistakable. He leaned into her touch like he was being drawn by an inexorable force. Their faces turned as she pulled away and their lips brushed. His shaking breath filled her mouth and she tasted saltwater and copper.</p><p>Roxanne felt a surge of something she couldn't quite name and wrapped her hands around the edge of his cape to tug him gently closer, intending to press her mouth against his and drive the mess of upset and confusion out of her head.</p><p>He froze.</p><p>She paused, he wasn't moving. "Do you not want this?"</p><p>His eyes burned "Do you?"</p><p>Its on the tip of her tongue to say yes. Yes. Fuck everything and everyone  and most of all fuck her. He wants her, she knows he does, has done for years. But he's not moving and she feels...</p><p>She feels like Hal. </p><p>Her skin crawled.</p><p>"You're right" she dropped his cape, "Sorry."</p><p>He sighed and there was an ocean of unspoken things behind it, "You've had an unpleasant interaction Miss Ritchi. I don't want you to take a step you'll rue as a spur of the moment reaction."</p><p>She swallowed and looked at him. Is that why he turned her down? "You think I'd regret it."</p><p>"I think you don't know what you're asking." He stepped back, widening the gap between them to a safer distance. </p><p>"I think I do."</p><p>"No Miss Ritchi, you really don't." He went into that predatory stillness again, "If you want me, I'm only prepared to let that happen if you want <em>me</em>. I will not risk a one-sided interaction."</p><p>"And if I do want you?" In the little patch of shadow the rest of the world has receded. </p><p>He laughed mirthlessly "Oh you wont. Not once you've seen me"</p><p>"You've never scared me before"</p><p>"Yet. Miss Ritchi, I haven't scared you yet."</p><p>The bus pulled up and he faded into the shadows.</p>
<hr/><p>Roxanne pulled the door of her apartment closed behind her and rested her back against it, letting her purse and laptop bag slide to the floor.</p><p>A floating red light on her balcony had her crossing the room to slide the glass open. A hovering brain-bot waited outside patiently. Roxanne crossed her fists in front of her chest and pulled them apart at shoulder height <em>Safe.</em></p><p>She put her right hand flat below her mouth and moved her hand downwards towards the bot <em>Thank you</em></p><p>The bot repeated her motions with its claws and she nodded, it bobbed silently and flew off into the night. Roxanne slid the door shut and pressed her cheek against the glass, closing her eyes.</p>
<hr/><p>Megamind slumped into his chair, the ticking hum of the lair blurring the air around him.</p><p>The cap he usually wore over his teeth lay discarded on the desk in front of him. He hasn't been wearing it. The new row is growing in and it is painful to try and push them into some semblance of human order.  </p><p>The brain-bot, Shy, flew in and hovered above him. He blinked up at it and unfolded one hand in query. It repeated Roxanne's message and he nodded, dismissing it back to the charging hive. </p><p>He pressed a hand to his cheek and shuddered as his skin again tried to ripple to the shape of where her lips had pressed.</p><p>She hadn't...</p><p>It wasn't....</p><p>She didn't want <em>him</em>.</p><p>It was shock. That was all.</p><p>But oh how tempting it had been.</p><p>There was one tiny grain of self preservation lodged low in his ribs under his secondary heart. He wondered if its what love is supposed to feel like. He has always been very good at being self destructive. But even he's not prepared to go full heart on a spit.</p><p>No matter how much he wants to.</p><p>The Lair is empty around him, Minion nowhere to be seen. He must be downstairs already.</p><p>Megamind stood and headed downwards. He reached a wide dark room hidden well below the lair. Water lapped and splashed over the concrete floor. There was a flash of fins amongst the coral reef in the pool before him. He bent and removed his boots. The cape and mantle hit the floor shortly after. </p><p>He unbuckled the top of his gloves, dragging them off as much as possible then pulling them the rest of the way with his teeth. His fingers flexed and bent one way then the other. The stilts in his gloves keep his hands to mostly human shape. Nothing to be done about the proportions but still. No one needs to know how the cartilage slips loose and can be reshaped. His hands aren't so much as double jointed as socketed. The webbing between his fingers is crossed with callouses and scars from the gloves </p><p>Two of the bots strip him of his leathers, the frill of gills behind his neck unfurling as the collar is removed.  He stepped forward and slid into the water with a deep groan. Dislocating his shoulders out of their secondary sockets to ease out of the compression suit he wears underneath. The rush of water through his spiracles makes him feel like he can breathe again for the first time in hours.</p><p>He grew up in this gravity, but it has not been kind to him. His body does not move the way it should. The trial of keeping himself upright and fighting on the surface has left him with muscles that twist where they should glide. Limbs that cramp instead of stretch.</p><p>In the water Minion butted against his arm and his bio-luminescent photophores flashed in the low light of the reef <em>Her/safe/good? </em></p><p><em>Yes/Safe/Home</em> he answered silently</p><p>Minion set to grooming at the twisted fronds of his outer gills <em>Sir/Safe/Good?</em></p><p><em>Sir/Safe/Evil</em> he corrected nudging the fish away.</p><p>He tilted his head back and let his eyes relax. The Lair swam for a moment as his pupils regained their original shape and he suffered through the disorientating moment of up-is-down-is-up until his vision finally cleared.</p><p>He slipped further into the water, diving deeper into the artificial cave ringed with anemones and seaweed  until there is no light but the bio-luminescent glow from the ridge on his spine. He anchored himself to an outcrop of rock with feet splayed too wide, letting the currents sway him back and forth. Slick black fronds caressed the fins at his hips and ankles.</p><p>He clutched at the seaweed and unhinged his jaw to keen the songs of the dark into the depths below, tangled in the flat strands of kelp like a bulbous headed spider waiting in the centre of its web.</p><p>Presentation indeed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I headcanon Roxanne as only putting up with Hal's shitty behaviour because technically she isn't allowed to drive the van (despite the movie) which means whoever she works with has to do all the driving (the kidnappings are probably another reason).<br/>The Brainbots using ASL is probably one of my favourite things about this and I'll probably explore that in other fics someday.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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